Christ commands us to love our neighbor. The parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25-37) illustrates this in a dramatic way. The Samaritan comes to the aid of a man who was beaten and left half dead by the roadside. His love for his neighbor exemplifies Christ’s command. The parable presents one’s neighbor as an act of love for another (who may be a stranger) in a direct person-to-person manner.
A question remains concerning whether we can imitate the Good Samaritan by extending our love to citizens of the future, to people we could neither know nor meet. Can the concept of neighbor apply to such people? Can we love people of the future? Can such people be regarded as our neighbors?
A satellite in the sky receives a signal from the earth and returns it to a new location. Let us imagine God as a satellite dish receiving an expression of love and then redirecting it to recipients of the future. In this manner, a person of the present can regard another person of the future as his neighbor. With respect to God, time is not divided into past, present, and future. He sees everything independently of chronology. He see everything at once.
The artist labors intensely and tirelessly to produce something beautiful that will nourish the souls of future citizens. Mozart was composing the Lacrimosa for his Requiem while he was in bed dying. Auguste Renoir, despite severe arthritis in his wrists, continued to accept the pain his artistry demanded. This will pass, he said of the pain, but the paintings will last. The scientist will be faithful to his inspiration despite social criticism and financial woes to make breakthroughs that benefit posterity. Thomas Alva Edison famously stated that genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Edison illuminated the world. Why is that artists and scientists make enormous sacrifices on a personal level so that their work will survive and benefit innumerable people they will never know?
God is a Mediator of Love. He can also install in the hearts and minds of people a drive to produce something of value for the body or for the soul. And He can assist in helping His human creatures to fulfill their destinies. There are many ways in which a person can enact the role of the Good Samaritan. The future can be closer to us than we think. Distance is alien to the heart.
The life and labor of Guglielmo Marconi serve as a convincing example of a man who had a strong sense that the neighbors for whom he labored belonged to the future and that his work was truly in conformity with God’s will.
Marconi’s daughter, Elettra, reminisced about her father’s spiritual convictions. In an interview published by The Catholic Register, dated April 17, 2009, with Edward Pentin, she stated that he was a “very good Catholic” and that was evident in the letters he wrote. “He was always a believer,” she added. Concerning the many benefits he bequeathed to humanity, she stated that, “All the time he would say it was a gift of God that he could benefit mankind with his invention and save all these human lives. He was always thanking God for working through him.” The thought of being a Good Samaritan to his future neighbors was always with him.
After his discovery of wireless communication, Marconi was world famous and properly honored. He was offered free passage on the Titanic. But the luxury and publicity this ocean vessel promised did not particularly interest him. He boarded the Lusitania (three years before it met its fate) because he had paperwork to do and preferred to work with the public stenographer that was on that ship. Nonetheless, his presence on the Titanic was in the form of the wireless technology he had invented. It is interesting to note that the radio operators aboard the ill-fated ship were not employed by the White Star Line, but by the Marconi International Marine Communication Company.
The epoch tragedy would have been even greater had it not been for the wireless technology that alerted the Carpathia, 58 miles away, of the Titan’s imminent disaster. Thus, thanks to the Carpathia’s rescue, 720 lives were saved. Later, at a Court hearing, Britain’s Postmaster-General declared that, “Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi…and his marvelous invention.”
Marconi predicted that one day people will carry with them a little box that can be kept in their pockets. They will be able to use this deice to communicate with anyone of their choosing. This “little box” was not realized during Marconi’s lifetime, but today it is considered a staple. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, has stated that Marconi is our roots and we are his branches.
Schoolchildren are taught that Marconi invented the radio. This invention laid the groundwork for television and sundry other forms of wireless communication. The number of lives Marconi has saved through his inventions is incalculable.
Marconi’s dedication to his work is an inspiration. His last project was extracting gold from sea water. As Elettra stated in her interview, “I saw golden threads he was catching from the sea with his electric wave instruments.” And then, his daughter related, he died suddenly. It was his ninth heart attack. He had survived eight without losing his zest for work. We, the neighbors of his future, salute him for his patience, ingenuity, and above all, his love.
Photo by Akbar Nemati on Unsplash
